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Make-up artists have fun with Magazine Wars

Pat Ingram

Was it REALLY like that? The tantrums, the triumphs, the drama and dancing on desks? I never worked with either Woman's Day's Nene King or New Idea's Dulcie Boling. But I was a long-time colleague of Nene's, and trod the shaking corridors of Park Street on many a day when El Nene struck. And so, yes, it was kind of like that. But while it makes fun viewing, the ABC's Paper Giants: Magazine Wars to my mind is more guilty of fiction than faction. But hey, it's drama.

They were heady days for all of us, the unprecedented circulation growth as the young royals unravelled. Diana's dying marriage, then divorce and Fergie's fecklessness fuelled the voracious appetite of the weekly mag readers, week after titillating week, making Australia home to the highest circulating women's magazines in the world. Celebs were mercilessly pounced on by paparazzi dizzy with the possibilities of the telephoto lens; some caught in flagrante or, shock horror, without their make-up.

Nene could be volatile and on occasions the door of ACP publisher Richard Walsh's office was probably trying desperately to hold onto its hinges. But she was also warm and funny and as many of her staff loved her as loathed her. There may have been a touch of Stockholm syndrome about it but as long as Nene would have them, mostly they stayed.

Missing from the screen was Nene's ''minder'', the late Dawn Swain. On one occasion I was in Dawn's office when Nene came bursting through the door, threw herself down on the couch in '30s movie tragic heroine style (she was quite an actress) and proceeded to rant and wail. Dawn did not bat an eyelid. ''There, there,'' she soothed. ''Have a Mintie.'' And in moments the tantrum was over.

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As editor of the company's biggest money-spinner, Nene had the lead role in the real-life soap opera that was Park Street. I can't believe I have all but erased from memory those ubiquitous brown envelopes like weekly report cards that arrived every Friday. Editors lived in dread of them, some even throwing up before they could bear to open them. And then it all came to an abrupt halt with Diana's death. Fingers were pointed at the paparazzi and the weekly magazines' joyride became their own car crash. Readers felt they, too, had blood on their hands and left it to the magazines to shoulder the blame for their share of the prurience.

Nene, too, had her own public tragedy, a story which could have easily come out of the pages of Woman's Day, with the loss of her beloved partner Patrick. I'll never forget the press pictures of her return from her futile search of the sea, her face etched with disbelief and despair. Friend or foe, every heart in Park Street ached for her.

Magazine Wars was very much ALL ABOUT NENE, both in character and caricature. But maybe with her very private persona New Idea's Dulcie was a somewhat harder figure to portray. Not that the picture of her looking lost and lonely in the night-time gloom of her office was likely to be an accurate one for a woman who has achieved what she has.

And so what was the legacy of this particularly colourful period in the world of the weeklies? For sure Nene took a moribund magazine whose knit one, purl one corrections far out-weighed its pizazz. She added colour, movement and mojo that made WD close to an addiction. And without a doubt her tabloid sensibilities were superb. Like the best editors, she never edited for her peers. She knew what the readers wanted almost before they did, and she gave it to them in spades.

It would be unfair to say that when the party was over the category was trashed but sensationalism was no longer what readers wanted. After that time the challenge was the restoration of sanity and credibility, and in a marketplace that by then had a spate of rivals. It's a challenge that continues for today's magazine mavens where the rivalry may be less personal but just as fierce; despite circulation plummeting from a million plus readers, down to about 400,000 for WD, and 350,000 for New Idea.

I, too, had my share of magazine battles when as editor of Cosmopolitan I found myself suddenly on the hallowed ground of Cleo, which Kerry Packer had launched in retaliation for the eleventh-hour loss to Fairfax of the Hearst licence. Cleo editor Lisa Wilkinson and I had no personal feud to settle but when there are two titles in direct competition and both of you want to win there are certain to be scraps and even a little skulduggery.

Did I enjoy Paper Giants: Magazine Wars? Well, it wasn't Downton Abbey and it has more screaming than Call The Midwife. But, you bet.

Former publishing director of ACP's women's titles, Pat Ingram now works for Fairfax Media.

13 comments

Pat, it is not true to say that the party is over. For a start, they went from women's magazines to being trash mags and basically still are. The fact that Nene King was the editor responsible for telling the world that Prince Harry was in Afghanistan that first time when everyone else was keeping their collective mouths shut, promoted an image that she didn't particularly care about the consequences as long as the magazine sold heaps. That was very cheap.So far as the Nene vs Dulcie story is concerned, it has been reported elsewhere in Fairfax that the whole story is based primarily around Nene King's version of events and that Dulcie Boling refused to have anything to do with it, prefering to maintain her privacy.

The second last paragraph makes it clear that even for those who came after the Nene vs Dulcie era, 'whatever it takes to sell the mag' was still more important than decency.

By the way, Nene King's comment over the Fergie topless toe sucking affair was wrong - Fergie was actually on private land and the photographer had to resort to hiding out to get those photos. The size of the lenses these 'photographers' used then and continue to use says it all really. Privacy is for the unimportant.

Commenter

Lucie

Date and time

June 07, 2013, 5:33AM

Nene King was not editor of Woman's Day when Harry was in Afghanistan, she had left long before that.

Commenter

cx

Date and time

June 07, 2013, 9:12AM

It was New Idea at Pacific Magazines that told Prince Harry's wearabouts in Afghanistan, with the cruel Editor herself Mirella Cestaro

Commenter

me

Date and time

June 07, 2013, 9:27AM

Lucie, , meI know I sound cynical but if the ALQueda types of the world had to rely on some australian trash mag to publish harrys where abouts, then the WOT would be easily won.If only the Pentagon, Whitehall etc saw things so clearly !Don't go away folks, I'm sure the CIA and ASIS will be in touch for more such in-depth analysis. Kathryn Bigelow will be in touch .

Commenter

LeftyRoy

Location

Cydnee

Date and time

June 07, 2013, 10:28AM

thanks a lot SMH for spoiling this, i didn't know her husband was going to be killed. I'll still be watching it anyway so if your poly was to divert the audience to your sponsors shows you've failed.

Commenter

thanks for spoliling

Location

sydney

Date and time

June 07, 2013, 10:15AM

Thanks for spoiling....are you for real? This is based on real life. Nene lost her husband - IN REAL LIFE!!

Are you going to let this one through mods?

Commenter

Encee

Date and time

June 07, 2013, 10:55AM

You lost me in the first para when I could not figure out what these two sentences mean:

" I never worked with either Woman's Day's Nene King or New Idea's Dulcie Boling. But I was a long-time colleague of Nene's,"

Commenter

enno

Location

sydney

Date and time

June 07, 2013, 10:20AM

Every revolution sows the seeds of its own destruction

Commenter

Bushranger

Location

Sydney

Date and time

June 07, 2013, 10:53AM

For me it lost all credibility when it opened with Flowers (pre-Icehouse) 'We Can Get Together" as a soundtrack for 1987. It was actually released in 1980. Then a montage of that year's events featured Australia II winning the America's Cup!? Ah, that was 1983. Too many oversights to be taken as any kind of credible account of the times. Still entertaining, though.